Spring and Fall

What does the speaker first ask of her, and what does he tell her? Again, look also at the language and imagery. (You may, if you wish, compare this poem to Wordsworth's "We Are Seven").

The speaker is asks Margaret at first if she is mourning over Goldengrove, “Margaret, are you grieving//Over Goldengrove unleaving?” The speaker wonders if she loves the leaves like she loves the “things of man” thus we’re given the impression that this girl is young and possibly naïve. The poem being addressed “to a young child” also adds to this impression. He, the speaker, tells her that she will age and return to “such sights colder” as the forest, assumedly Goldengrove, will pale and change to her aging mind. Still, he says she’ll mourn the loss of the place she knew; here is where I first see the reference to the Garden of Eden. Goldengrove is Margaret’s Garden of Eden, a place that she could no longer visit after she had grown older, though aging is nothing like the Original Sin. The childish innocence of loving something so strongly as a place does remind me of the sweet child of “We Are Seven” who refused to allow that her and her siblings were no longer seven. With the final lines though, “It is the blight man was born for,//It is Margaret you mourn for.” I feel links the two girls more closely. Margaret didn’t wish to give up her beloved place that she loved more than people’s things, and the other girl simply refused to let it go of her belief. Both characters held strongly to something that seemed silly, but still the strength of their convictions was worth envy.